Well.... it´s almost the end of this transfer. I have 3.5 months here in this area. I am almost sure to leave. I am very spoiled in this area so I´m not entirely sure I want to leave, but at the same time, there aren´t doors that I haven´t knocked sooo.... I kinda need a change of scenery. In the end it doesn´t matter a bit what I want to do or not because I´m in the hands of the Lord and I will be sent to whatever part I´m sent and I will go. Such is my life and it is fantastic! No sarcasm.
So we were supposed to have a baptism this Sunday, but her husband is whispering gossip about the church with his friends and she now has doubt about the law of tithing. She isn’t sure if the Lord would ask her to pay something for blessings. What are my thoughts on the matter? When does He NOT ask something from us? We only recieve blessings after a test of our faith. Not after we have found an easier way to live. Besides that, He promises so many things if we only do one thing. That´s one uneven trade that I am ALL for. And He is too because of His unending love for us.
What does she say when we ask her a direct question? "Well what my husband and his friends are saying is that...." WHAT THE DUCE!?!?!?! WHO CARES WHAT THEY HAVE TO SAY!?!?! Is God saying that stuff? No. Then why does it matter?! I am strongly pushing the whole Nephi and Laban story for her husband. As my Grandma says, "Some people just need killin." Now of course I don´t actually want him to come to any harm. He takes care of his family. He is just wrongly guided. The teachings of Satan LOOK nice, but when you apply them, all you do is lose. And that is what is happening. The whole family is losing blessings because one man allowed the words of Satan enter into his mind. Then he thought on those words, and they entered his heart.
The invitation in the introduction to the Book of Mormon is to read, meditate and pray to know if those things are true. The problem is, people read and meditate the things of Satan too, and his teachings say NOT to pray to know if they are true. And so people lose. They lose big.
That´s about what sums up our week. We are looking for new investigators but the work is hard and the hearts are harder. Members here are great with food but terrible with teaching what they live and even worse at living what they are taught.
Sunday morning, we got a call from the bishop of Maravillas asking us to speak in Sacrament. with 20 min before we took off to our first ward. We prepared. In prayer, I asked what I should speak about. I then started thinking of certain points that had been in my head through the week and none seemed right. So I picked up the Book of Mormon and started reading where I was in my reading, but it just wasn´t what the ward needed. So I picked up my study journal and the Spirit gave an unquestionable, "Yes". After a whole lot of reading and more prayers, I found where I had gone over Chapter 8 of Ether. That was it. I read the chapter and just couldn´t figure out what I was supposed to teach. Then I read the last verse. Bam. That was it. I planned a talk but 5 min before I got up on the stand. Something needed to change. So I read the scripture again and thought about it. I turned to Alma
When I got up to talk, I hammered the entire ward for not reading the scriptures, for not living the gospel and for not sharing it with their friends. I said some Spanish words that I didn´t know that I knew. The power of revelation is real. The gospel is true. We are not perfect, but the gospel of Jesus Christ is. We can have that perfection in our lives every moment if we would just fill our hearts and minds with the teachings of the scriptures. We can live that perfection with every action we make. We can´t be perfect, but we have been given perfection. Use it. Live it. Share it. I love you all. Remember the Lord in all your dealings.
This has been a rant by Elder Heath.
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